Mountain climbers are a great full-body exercise that gives you a cardio boost while strengthening your abs and core, glutes, hip flexors, legs, upper-back muscles, and shoulders.
But, how many mountain climbers should you do? What is a good number of mountain climbers to include in your gym workouts?
In this guide, we will provide instructions for how to do mountain climbers properly and the average number of reps based on sex, age, fitness level, and body weight, so that you can determine, “How many mountain climbers should I do?” in your next training session.
Let’s jump in!
How Do You Do Mountain Climbers?
Before we look at how many mountain climbers you should do, let’s look at how to perform mountain climbers:
Here are the steps:
- Get into a push-up position with your core and glutes engaged and your hands stacked under your shoulders. Your body should be in a straight line from the top of your head to your heels.
- Press your weight into your hands and alternate bending each knee, exploding through the ball of your foot to drive the knee up under your chest between your arms and then returning it to the starting position. Be sure to maintain good form with your hips in line with your body. Keep your upper body and core as still as possible and engage your glutes and core.
- Move as fast and hard as you can without sacrificing good form.
How Many Mountain Climbers Should I Do? Average Max Mountain Climbers By Age, Sex, Weight, and Fitness Level
While there may not be official mountain climbers standards in terms of how many mountain climbers you should be able to do by age, sex, or body weight, Strength Level1Mountain Climbers Standards for Men and Women (lb). (n.d.). Strength Level. Retrieved November 6, 2023, from https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/mountain-climbers/lbdoes have average mountain climber reps for men and women by age and sex using self-submitted 2,028 data points from users of the online community for the website.
According to Strength Level, here are the norms for how many mountain climbers you should be able to do based on your sex and fitness level:
| Strength Level | Male Mountain Climbers Reps | Female Mountain Climbers Reps |
| Beginner | < 1 | < 1 |
| Novice | 14 | 11 |
| Intermediate | 42 | 33 |
| Advanced | 77 | 61 |
| Elite | 117 | 91 |
What Is the Average Number of Mountain Climber Reps By Age for Males?
According to Strength Level, here are the average mountain climber reps for men by age:
| Age | Beginner | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
| 15 | < 1 | 8 | 31 | 61 | 95 |
| 20 | < 1 | 12 | 40 | 74 | 113 |
| 25 | < 1 | 14 | 42 | 77 | 117 |
| 30 | < 1 | 14 | 42 | 77 | 117 |
| 35 | < 1 | 14 | 42 | 77 | 117 |
| 40 | < 1 | 14 | 42 | 77 | 117 |
| 45 | < 1 | 11 | 38 | 71 | 109 |
| 50 | < 1 | 9 | 34 | 65 | 101 |
| 55 | < 1 | 7 | 29 | 58 | 91 |
| 60 | < 1 | 4 | 24 | 50 | 80 |
| 65 | < 1 | 1 | 19 | 43 | 70 |
| 70 | < 1 | < 1 | 14 | 35 | 59 |
| 75 | < 1 | < 1 | 10 | 28 | 50 |
| 80 | < 1 | < 1 | 6 | 22 | 42 |
| 85 | < 1 | < 1 | 3 | 17 | 34 |
| 90 | < 1 | < 1 | < 1 | 12 | 28 |
What Is the Average Number of Mountain Climber Reps By Weight for Males?
According to Strength Level, here are the average mountain climber reps for men by body weight in pounds and kilograms:
| Body Weight (pounds) | Body Weight (kgs) | Beginner | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
| 110 | 50 | < 1 | 14 | 48 | 91 | 142 |
| 120 | 55 | < 1 | 14 | 47 | 88 | 135 |
| 130 | 59 | < 1 | 15 | 45 | 85 | 130 |
| 140 | 64 | < 1 | 15 | 44 | 82 | 124 |
| 150 | 68 | < 1 | 15 | 43 | 79 | 119 |
| 160 | 73 | < 1 | 14 | 42 | 76 | 115 |
| 170 | 77 | < 1 | 14 | 41 | 74 | 111 |
| 180 | 82 | < 1 | 14 | 40 | 71 | 107 |
| 190 | 86 | < 1 | 14 | 39 | 69 | 103 |
| 200 | 91 | < 1 | 13 | 37 | 67 | 100 |
| 210 | 95 | < 1 | 13 | 36 | 65 | 97 |
| 220 | 100 | < 1 | 13 | 35 | 63 | 94 |
| 230 | 105 | < 1 | 12 | 34 | 61 | 91 |
| 240 | 109 | < 1 | 12 | 33 | 59 | 88 |
| 250 | 114 | < 1 | 12 | 33 | 58 | 86 |
| 260 | 118 | < 1 | 11 | 32 | 56 | 83 |
| 270 | 123 | < 1 | 11 | 31 | 55 | 81 |
| 280 | 127 | < 1 | 11 | 30 | 53 | 79 |
| 290 | 132 | < 1 | 10 | 29 | 52 | 77 |
| 300 | 136 | < 1 | 10 | 28 | 50 | 75 |
| 310 | 141 | < 1 | 10 | 28 | 49 | 73 |
What Is the Average Number of Mountain Climber Reps By Age for Women?
According to Strength Level, here are the average mountain climber reps for females by age:
| Age | Beginner | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
| 15 | < 1 | 6 | 24 | 47 | 73 |
| 20 | < 1 | 10 | 32 | 58 | 88 |
| 25 | < 1 | 11 | 33 | 61 | 91 |
| 30 | < 1 | 11 | 33 | 61 | 91 |
| 35 | < 1 | 11 | 33 | 61 | 91 |
| 40 | < 1 | 11 | 33 | 61 | 91 |
| 45 | < 1 | 9 | 30 | 56 | 85 |
| 50 | < 1 | 7 | 26 | 51 | 78 |
| 55 | < 1 | 5 | 22 | 45 | 70 |
| 60 | < 1 | 2 | 18 | 38 | 61 |
| 65 | < 1 | < 1 | 13 | 32 | 53 |
| 70 | < 1 | < 1 | 9 | 25 | 44 |
| 75 | < 1 | < 1 | 6 | 20 | 36 |
| 80 | < 1 | < 1 | 2 | 14 | 29 |
| 85 | < 1 | < 1 | < 1 | 10 | 23 |
| 90 | < 1 | < 1 | < 1 | 7 | 18 |
What Is the Average Number of Mountain Climber Reps By Body Weight for Women?
According to Strength Level, here are the average mountain climber reps for women by body weight in pounds and kilograms:
| Body Weight (pounds) | Body Weight (kgs) | Beginner | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
| 90 | 41 | < 1 | 12 | 39 | 73 | 111 |
| 100 | 45 | < 1 | 12 | 38 | 69 | 105 |
| 110 | 50 | < 1 | 12 | 36 | 66 | 100 |
| 120 | 55 | < 1 | 12 | 35 | 63 | 95 |
| 130 | 59 | < 1 | 12 | 34 | 60 | 90 |
| 140 | 64 | < 1 | 11 | 32 | 58 | 86 |
| 150 | 68 | < 1 | 11 | 31 | 55 | 82 |
| 160 | 73 | < 1 | 11 | 30 | 53 | 79 |
| 170 | 77 | < 1 | 10 | 29 | 51 | 76 |
| 180 | 82 | < 1 | 10 | 28 | 49 | 73 |
| 190 | 86 | < 1 | 10 | 27 | 47 | 70 |
| 200 | 91 | < 1 | 9 | 26 | 45 | 67 |
| 210 | 95 | < 1 | 9 | 25 | 44 | 65 |
| 220 | 100 | < 1 | 9 | 24 | 42 | 62 |
| 230 | 105 | < 1 | 8 | 23 | 41 | 60 |
| 240 | 109 | < 1 | 8 | 22 | 39 | 58 |
| 250 | 114 | < 1 | 7 | 21 | 38 | 56 |
| 260 | 118 | < 1 | 7 | 20 | 37 | 54 |
How Many Mountain Climbers Should I Do For Solid Gains?
It’s important to note that although the tables above show some standards for how many mountain climbers you should be able to do, these are not official standards.
The number of mountain climbers you should do really depends on your fitness level, fitness goals, and the type of mountain climbers you are doing.
While regular mountain climbers often challenge beginners, advanced athletes may need to progress this bodyweight exercise to make it more challenging, particularly if the goal is to increase strength.
The most important thing to remember is that the mountain climber exercise when performed as a bodyweight cardio burst is designed to be a high-intensity, total-body movement2Machado, A., Evangelista, A., Miranda, J., Teixeira, C., Rica, R., Lopes, C., Figueira-Júnior, A., Baker, J., & Bocalini, D. (2018). Description of training loads using whole-body exercise during high-intensity interval training. Clinics, 73. https://doi.org/10.6061/clinics/2018/e516rather than a strength-focused exercise.
For this reason, you want to focus on keeping the pace and intensity high and worrying less about how many reps or how long you do mountain climbers.
To this end, I generally recommend doing mountain climbers for time rather than counting the reps unless you are doing weighted mountain climbers or some advanced progression of the mountain climbers exercise.
This helps you focus just on pushing your body as hard as you can for the timed interval rather than having to count every single mountain climber rep.
You can progress this mountain climbers workout by using gliding discs under your feet or sliding your socked feet along a hardwood floor.
Wearing ankle weights or performing the exercise with your feet hooked into TRX straps are also excellent ways to increase the workload on your core muscles and hip flexors.
Another good progression is to do crossover mountain climbers in which you drive your knee up towards the opposite shoulder across your body to further engage your oblique muscles on the sides of your abs.
Finally, you can do mountain climbers with your hands on top of a medicine ball instead of spaced shoulder-width apart on the floor underneath your body.
The medicine ball mountain climbers progression gives you a very narrow and unstable base of support.
This requires you to actively engage your core in a 360° fashion while increasing the workload on the shoulders, traps, rhomboids, posterior deltoids, and even triceps and pecs.
Beginners should start with two sets of 20 to 30 seconds and then build up to three sets of 30 seconds of mountain climbers.
If you can’t yet do regular mountain climbers, you can elevate your hands up on a weight bench to reduce the intensity of the exercise.
If you are trying to increase cardio endurance and you can maintain a high intensity, build up to 60 seconds and then 90-second sprints.
If you are adding ankle weights or doing a more advanced mountain climbers variation, dial back down to 20 to 30 seconds and then increase as you get stronger.
If you want to strengthen your abs even more, check out our 30-day abs challenge here.
